Blueberry Muffins w/ Orange Honey Butter

Oh yes ma'am...er, sir. These things are the bomb diggity. Sorry, I think my Junior High days just caught up with me. 

Blueberry muffins are pretty common in our house. Actually, blueberry everything is pretty common in our house. Actually just blueberries are. We throw them on top of almost everything, and muffins just seem appropriate.

The problem is that one (being me, of course) can easily get tired of the traditional blueberry muffin. "What??" You say. "How can one ever get tired of a blueberry muffin?! Are you crazy or something?" First of all, yes, I am slightly crazy, hence the name of my blog, second of all, trust me, it's possible. 

But it's not worth giving up muffins, for Blarney's sake (sorry, we had Irish food last night). So sometimes I tweak them a little, just to vary things up. And I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite muffin recipes to date. It's sweet, but not too sweet, it's fluffy but rather moist and not dry, and they are bite size, which just makes them that much more tempting. Oh, and they are not overly unhealthy, since they are made with 100% whole wheat flour. 

But that's not all that makes these things stand out above the rest in my eyes. You see, they also have this stuff below. 

 Orange honey butter. It's easy, it's good enough to eat on it's own (not that I'd do that......ever again...), and it's great on muffins! Heck, it's also great on plain toast, french toast, and other things I'm not creative enough to think up right now. 

But let's get started on the muffins. Basically I'm using a classic muffin recipe, except with whole wheat flour and less sugar.  

Blueberry Muffin Recipe

• 3 cups white wheat flour
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• ⅔ cups Shortening
• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup Milk

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350. 

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat sugar and shortening for a couple minutes on medium speed. Add eggs to sugar and shortening mixture, and beat for a about 10 seconds. Add half of flour and beat for a few seconds, then add half of milk, beating for a few seconds. Next, add the rest of the flour and beat, and then the rest of the milk and beat. Everything should be combined. Fill each muffin cup up to the top, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

And I should note that I'm pretty anti-Crisco. Here's the ingredients list: "SOYBEAN OIL, FULLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM AND SOYBEAN OILS, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACI" -- yeah, no thanks to the fully hydrogenated stuff, not to meantion partially hudrogenated junk. Enough of the lecture, I use this stuff:

 I'm not just a huge fan of shortening in general, but when it's needed, this stuff works great every time. IF you can't find this stuff, you can use just plain oil. If you're a Crisco lover, that's fine too. I won't tell anybody. :)

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Now on to the stuff that makes these things EVEN BETTER!

(Super easy, don't worry)

Orange Honey Butter Recipe

1 stick Butter, unsalted

1/2 large orange (with skin)

1 TBS honey (plus more to taste)

Let butter soften for about 20 minutes, just enough to where it's not so cold. Slice up the half orange until a couple pieces (doesn't matter how you do it) and leave the rind on. Once butter has sat out for about 20 minutes, toss it into the food processor with the orange and honey. Spin it around in the food processor a few times, or until well blended. At this point, you can add more butter, orange, or honey to your liking. The recipe above is the perfect balance to me (with up to 2 TBS of honey), but you want this to taste how YOU want it to! 

At this point, you can spoon the honey onto some parchment paper, and roll up into a tube. Instructions on how to do that here.

And you could probably even gift this stuff. Who wouldn't like orange honey butter?

Or, you could save it for yourself, and spread some on these muffins! 

..which is what I did!

And I have no regrets. 

 I mean, I'm just not to the type to live with regrets. 

It's orangish. It's creamy. It's sweet, but kinda tangy. It's my breakfast. It's my go-to for a week's worth of super delicious breakfast for me and my husband.

It's........ Blueberry Muffins w/ Orange Honey Butter. I'll be posting another blueberry muffin recipe tomorrow..Blueberry Gems. Sorry, I just felt you should be warned.